Amalgamator



(No Model.) 2 sheets-sheet 1.

H. C. TRAIN.. v

f IAMALGAMATOR. l N. 258,380. Patented May 23, 1882.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HORATIO CHURCH TRAIN, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

A MALGAMATO R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters lPatent No. 253,330, dated May 23, 1882.

Application filed June 13, 1881. (No model.) d

To all whom tt may concern Be it known that 1, HoaArto CHURCH TRAIN, of Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Dry- Placer Amalgamators, of which the following is a specification.

-My invention relates to improvements in machines for washing and extracting gold from auriferous deposits and crushed quartz, and separating the dirt from water after the gold has been extracted;l and the objects of my invention are, tirst,to provide a means by which all the line as well as the coarse gold can be brought in contact with amalgam-plates and saved; second, to separate the. dirt from the water in which it has been washed, so that the` same Water may be used over and over again, with little or no waste, in places Where suficient water for sluice-washing cannot be had 5 third, to operate the whole mechanism by one shaft and the same motive power. I attain these results by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is al perspective view of the machine with all its parts.` Fig. 2 is a front end sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 is a rear view of the same. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section ot' the same. Fig. 5 is a top view of the same. Fig. 6 is a cross-section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. This machine consists of two tanks, a and b, tank a raised sufficiently higher than tank b so that its front edge may rest upon the upper back side of tank b. The tank b is made of wood or other suitable material, and watertight. Tank ct is also made of wood, with a concaved iron bottom, and also water-tight, and both tanks may be made of any sizeor length desired. Upon the concaved bottom, and coming up above the joint ot the iron and Wood of ltank a, are placed', by sliding into grooves made for the purpose, am algam-plates c. In the middle ot' this bottom is a V-shaped groove or gutter, chin which mercury is placed V for the purpose of preventing the sand and e, having paddles or conveyers f attached to it diagonally and forming a screw.. Each'of the f onr wings or paddles of the conveyer is covered with an amalgam plate, which is placed between the flanges 71 and which may be six inches wide, more or less. One object of these plates is to take up any oating gold which may be upon the surface of the water. The rear end of shafte has adriVe-wheel, j, to which a force-pump, K, of any suitable design, is attached and operated, and which' is set upon the rear end of tank b. The object of this pump is to pump the water from tank b into the tank a through a hose attached for the purpose. The front end of shaft e has another drive-wheel, Z,'which carries, by means of a belt, the cleaning-buckets or elevator m.

` Upon the front end of tank a is a well, n, into which the tank opens, and into which the dirt is conveyed by the revolutions of the conveying-paddlesjiand which has a bottom considerably lower than the bottom of' tank a. In this well n is a pulley, o, over which the endless chain that carries the cleaning-buckets m passes. These buckets m are made of iron or other suitable material, having a wire-cloth face, through which the water is strained, leaving only the dirt or tailings, and are driven by a belt passing from drive-wheels Z to p. There are in this well n two openings or escapecocks. One, r, is placed on a level with the shaft e, or nearly so, and has the same discharging capacity as t-he pump K, and is kept open when the machine is operating and discharges intol tank b. The other, s, is for the purpose of drawing all the water from tank a when it is desired to remove the plate c. This cock s may discharge into ta'nk b, and should be placed in the side ot' well n lower than the bottom of tank e.

The conveyer in tank a is represented as made in separate'sections, the wings or flanges of one section being in a line between the flanges ot' the other section, so that as the dust leaves one section it is at once taken up by the next section, and thus carried forward to the end of the tank.

When I desire to use my machine the tanks are both filled with water. The auriferous dirt is shoveled upon the screen, (shown in the drawings,) which is placed over a slide, and

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the water from the hose attached to the force-v pump directed upon it until the ne sand and dirt is washed through the screen into the slide, and thence into the machine, when it is taken by the conveying -paddles and repeatedly thrown against the amalgax'n-plates until deposited in the well of the elevator. Here it is taken up and strained by the buckets and thrown ont upon an incline, which conveysit to the tailing heap. The water thus cleaned overtlows through the open cock r back into the tank b, and is again pumped out. Some dirt will pass into the water-tank, but not in sufficient quantities to do material harm, and it may be removed from the bottom of tank b hy a scoop made for the purpose. The pump having a suction from the surface of the water,

the water will be comparatively clean.

The machine may be also' used where water is ple-nty, and a sluice can he had by dispensing with the tank b and pump.

I am aware that it has been proposed to use a tank with a eonveyer therein for carryingthe material from one end to the other, and a secondary conveyer at the end ofthe tank for delivering the tailings7 outside ot1 the tank, both conveyers being worked by the same shaft; also to use a tank whereinto the water which has been used in washing may be run, so that the sediment in the water may settle in the tank, and therefore I lay no claim to anything heretofore used; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The tank having a eoucaved bottom lined with amalgam-plates, with a V-shaped gutter in the bottom, and opening intr a well, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. In an amalgamator, a tank provided with a shaft having a series of separate conveyers, the wings or lianges of one conreyer being on a line between the anges of the other eonveyer, and having amalgamated surfaces, substantially as specified.

3. The combination of tanks a and b, well n at the end of tank a', and communicating with tank b, and conveyers to the tank and well, the said convcyers being connected together and operated by power from the same shaft, substantially as set forth.

et. In combination with an amalgamator, the oonveyers or paddles f, having amalgamated snr-face '5, the tanks a and b, the coneaved bottom covered with amalgam-plates c, the gutter d for containing qnicksilver, well a, buckets m, and discharge-cocks r and s, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I afx my signature in presence ot'two witnesses.

HORATIO CHURCH TRAIN.

Vitnesses:

J. H. WORTHEN, HENRY A. FoLsoM. 

